Power-transmission mechanism.



J. E. FRIES.

POWER TRANSMISSION MECHANISM. APPLIOATION FILED 0012,1907.

UNITED STATES IinlIENT curren- JOENS ELIAS FRIES, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

POWER-TRANSMISSION MEGHAN ISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

- Patented May 11, 1909.

Application filed October 2, 1997. Serial No. 395,543.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JonNs ELIAs FRIES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Milwaukee,, in the. county of Milwaukee and new and useful Improvements in Power- Transmission' Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specifica tion.

My presentinvention relates to means for transmitting power and particularly to a s eed changing ap aratus adapted for use in c anging the angu ar velocity 1m arted by a driving member to a driven mem er.

- In friction gearing of the kind composed of a number of friction wheels mounted on a rotatable sup ort and arranged between and in contact wit a rapidly rotating shaft and a relatively fixed surrounding sleeve, there has been experienced hereto ore considerable (lifliculty in maintaining the proper contact relationship between the ,parts, Furthermore there has been considerable lossin the device due to excessive sliding friction.

The object of my resent mvention is to avoid the difi'iculties heretofore experienced in apparatus of this character, and in carrying out my invention I provide the central or high-speed shaft with a resilient ex ansible extension and maintain the outer en of said expansible extension in a positive and definite relation to the rollers co-acting therewith, so that a rollin contact without slipping is maintained, an the eri heral speed of the rollers and the perip oral speed of said expansible extension are maintained at a fixed ratio. This I accomplish preferably by means of a set of intermeshing gearing between the said extension and at least one of said rollers.

For a clearer understanding of my invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawing; in which,

Figure 1 shows a side view of my improved device with part of the casing cut away so as to show the operating parts; Fi 2 is an end elevation of the device shown in ig. 1 viewed from the left hand end; Fig. 3 is a sectional longitudinal elevation of the apparatus; Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 3 viewed in the direction of the arrow; and Fig. 5 is a detail elevation of the resilient expansible extension of the high-speed shaft.

Referring now to the drawings, the outer vice is indicated at 8 and includes a shaft State of Vv sconsin, have invented certain E which may be driven from any suitable source of power such as a high speed electric motor, or may be attached to any desired translating deviceifsaid shaft becomes the driven member. Said shaft 8 is rovided with a resilient expansible extenslon, here shown as a helical spring 9, preferably cut out of a hollow steel tube of proper shape and dimensions. One end of said spring 9 is rigidly fixed to the shaft 8 at 10. The slowspeed shaft 11 has its axis in alinement with t at of the high-speed shaft 8 and is rovided with a hub carrying a disk 12 in w 'ch are formed the bearings 13, preferably radially elongated slots, for receiving the journals 14 of a plurality of rollers 15. The disk 12 is keyed to the slow-speed member 11 as shown at 19 in Fig. 3. I have here illustrated three of the rollers 15 but any convenient number may be emplo ed as desired. The rollers 15 are journa ed at their opcposite ends in a ring 16 which is also prov1 ed with radially elongated slots 13.

In assembling my improved apparatus the parts should be put together with the spring 9 in contact with the rollers 15 only along a small part of its length and the first result of increased load will be increased length-of cons tact between the spring and rollers. As the friction in anapparatus of this cnaracter is proportional to the pressure between the moving parts, it will be seen that upon a further increase of load an actual unwinding of the spring, that is changing its size, is not necessary for increasing the pressure but this is accomplished by the microscopical deformation due to higher internal stresses. As the shaft 8 rotates, the spring 9 bearing against the rollers 15 will cause rotation of the latter, which, rollingalong the inner surface of the casing 6, in turn will cause the rotation of the slow-speed member 11 according to the ratio of the diameter of the coil spring or resilient extension 9 and the rollers 15.

i It is desirable in a device of this character to make the sliding friction as small as possible. In my improved-apparatus I reduce this sliding friction practically to zero by maintaining the outer end of the expansible extension 9 of the high-speed shaft in a defi-- nite position relative to the rollers. This re- 'a e Wit purely rol member and a low-speed member, of a cy- 7 changes w ing friction. t is obtained by providing at least one of the rollers 15 with a gear 17 which is always in mesh with a gear 18 on the outer end of the coil spring 9. I

I do not desire to limit my invention to the in the. a ended claims to cover obvious sco&el of the invention.

at I- claim is:

suits in maintaining a fixed ratio of angular 3 Such .re-

peripheral speed of the expansible extension in said low-speed member and making eontact with said high-speed member and said casing, said high-speed member being formed ch would clearly come within the I of resilient and expansible material for mainspeclfic modification hereln described but aim taining contact with said rollers, and a set of gears carried by said lugh-speed member and at least one of said rollers for forcing the.

l peripheral speed of said driving member to 1. The combination with a high-speed lindrical casing, a number of rollers carried by said low-speed member and making contact with said high-speed member and the inner'surface of said casing, and positively acting means for maintaining the peripheral speed of said rollers and the peripheral speed of said high-speed member at a fixed ratio.

2. The combination with a high-speed member and a low-speed member, of a cylindrical casing, a number of rollers rotatabiy mounted on said low-speed member and making contact with said high-speed member and casing, said high-speed member having resilient expansible means for maintaining contact with said rollers, and positively acting means for maintaining the ear a fixed ratio to that of the rollers.

4. In a power transmission device, the combination with a high-speed member and a low-speed member, of an annular cylindrical casing, a number of rollers carried by said low-s eed member and making contact with said high-speed member and the inner surface of said casing, and positively acting means for maintaining a purely rolling c011- .tact between the l1igh-speed member and said rollers during the operation of the device under load. In testimony whereof I aflix my signature,

in the presence of two witnesses.

JOENS ELIAS FRIES.

Witnesses:

ISAAC A. KELLER, WALTER E. SARGENT. 

